Mathilde’s adventure into blogging and la bonne cuisine

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Au revoir London

HERE it comes. Sooner – too soon? – than expected, and I can’t help but feel nostalgic about it already. You always tell yourself that you still have plenty of time before waking up that particular day. And then, you open your eyes and the time has finally come. Time to move back to France after two years spent in London.

Two years of food insanity, eating out in some of the best restaurants in London, meeting and interviewing wonderful and passionate people and improving my knowledge in food. But above all, two years of developing strong friendships and enjoying the wonderful blogging world in London.

The time has come to come back to a country we love, a way of life we enjoy (you don’t put a French person too far away from an opportunity to strike…), and raise a family next to ours.

Leaving London is not going to be an easy step. Life has been extremely generous to us and I have learned a lot through all the people I have met – restaurateurs, food producers, and even food PRs. I don’t know how to thank you all for the support you gave to my blog, the means you gave me to live my dream and to achieve crazy ideas, such as to be converted to porridge, to organise a brownie tasting, and an aubergines challenge.

You brought me a lot and I will keep your generosity in mind forever.

And how would I dare to leave the UK without my foodie treasure box? The box that every foodie should carry with him/her every time we go somewhere. The box that contains things that make you feel better.

My treasure box will also always be there to remind me of the kindness and high quality service of the Donald Russell team; a wonderful night at The Blaggers Banquet; an introduction to high quality coffee at Kaffeine; the pleasure of having worked with Simon Majumdar for his ‘Dine with Dos Hermanos’ dinners; a Spanish afternoon with Rachel McCormack cooking her home-made cuisine; an introduction to vodka by the legendary Leonid, owner of Bob Bob Ricard; the delightful team at Wahaca – Tommi, Mark and Cecilia; a crazy cheese feast at @bridedwithfood’s; red pepper and aubergines challenges; my first meeting with Ferran Adria at the Royal Geographical Society for the launch of the book The man who changed the way we eatby Colman Andrews; a home-made tapas meal cooked by the lovely Jose Pizarro; and the most insane foodie adventure my husband and I put ourselves through in the Instant Restaurant TV series on BBC2.

I will also add wonderful meals at San Lorenzo with our dear friend and passionate owner Ghigo; a discovery of Indian street food at Moolis, thanks to the crazy Matthew and Sam; an afternoon playing Scrabble at Polpo, which we nicknamed Foodabble; an introduction to Italian, Australian, Chilean and other wines from around the world with the help of @chrisCmitchell and @thirstforwine (which showed me how poor France is when it comes to discovering wines other than French ones); the best #FF from @chrispople; a piggy night at St John with 15 exciting ladies around a table; and a dive into food PR with three wonderful clients – Pho, Glorious and Yuforia.

This is only a short summary of 18 months of intense social and foodie life, and this post would be too long if I mentioned all the people I’ve met, the places I’ve visited, and the events I’ve enjoyed. I don’t know yet how the blogging life is going to be on the other side of the Channel but I promise I won’t only speak about frog legs and how French are proud of their cuisine. Well, at least not in my next three posts…

Thank you very much and I was very happy to finally meet you. Our unexpected lunch at the Street Kitchen showed us that we can meet everywhere without expecting it. Good luck with the move too and all the best with your new life

Awwww Mathilde! This is such a lovely post and from reading your kind words it is clear you are very muched loved by the UK Foodie people!! It’s been great getting to know you and we all wish you and your other half best wishes and all the success you could want. Take care and do keep in touch!

Mathilde – it has been such a pleasure learning all about the London foodie scene through your blog over the past year and a bit. I cannot wait to rediscover Paris through your eyes again. Wishing you both a beautiful new life in Paris!